How Home Country and Host Society Identity Politics Conflict

• In Event: Race, Identity, and the Determinants of Asian American Political Behavior

Abstract

In the United States, immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are conflated as Chinese by the Census bureau. These people have also been subject to the xenophobia that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies argue that sharing marginalized racial status would generate race-based group consciousness and political identity. We argue that the literature underestimates the extent to which these immigrants view host society through home country politics. We test this argument using a survey experiment on U.S. immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. We find weak evidence that priming marginalized racial status generates race-based group consciousness and political identity. By contrast, we show strong evidence that priming the differences of their home country regimes strengthens national or regional identity-based group consciousness and political identity. More importantly, when we used both stimuli, racial marginalization became substantially less critical to our outcomes of interest. The findings urge scholars to pay greater attention to home country politics to understand immigrant incorporation and their political attitude and identity formation in the host society.

Authors

• Jae Yeon Kim, KDI School of Public Policy and Management

• Joan E. Cho, Wesleyan University

• D.G. Kim, Harvard University

• Taeku Lee, Harvard University